Word: petroleum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...shock that could turn sluggishness into recession could come from another big hike in world oil prices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has scheduled a price meeting in Qatar for Dec. 15. Last week talk swirled around the world that OPEC might post only a small interim increase (5% or so) or even delay any rise until next year. Oil-burning countries can only hope that OPEC does hold off. The U.S. State Department, which has been waging an unusual public campaign to forestall an oil increase, warns that a 15% boost would cut a full percentage...
Abundant Energy. The growing popularity-and respectability-of solar-energy systems stems in part from the price of oil, which has quadrupled during the past five years, and is likely to climb still higher after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in December. The prices of natural gas and coal have also increased, and reserves of all three fuels have dwindled, forcing economists to look ahead to the day when they might be unavailable at almost any price. "We eventually will have very little left but solar energy," says Erich Farber of the University of Florida at Gainesville...
...quicken the pace of American business. These experts fear that unless the U.S. helps to speed up sluggish global growth by adopting a more stimulative course soon, the entire industrialized world could fall into another recession. Such a downturn could well be hastened if, as expected, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosts the world price of oil by 10% or more next month...
...early 1974. To oil consumers that argument seems extremely specious: the early 1974 terms of trade were achieved after a 400% jump in oil prices, and that leap caused no small part of the Western inflation that OPEC complains about. Even so, John Lichtblau director of the U.S. Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, contends that a 3% to 7.5% rise in oil prices would give OPEC members as much import-purchasing power as they have ever had. OPEC statisticians, to be sure, may see it differently. Lichtblau's figures, for example, do not include boosts in the prices...
...developing countries would be much harder hit. To pay their oil bills, they might well have to divert money from productive investments, thus increasing inflationary pressures and hurting their efforts to reduce unemployment. The psychological shock could be serious too. Says Economist Paul H. Frankel of London's Petroleum Economics Ltd.: "It is not at all certain that the world recovery is fully established. If the global economy is beginning to move down instead of up, OPEC'S price rise could be a critical factor aggravating that trend...